The Subaru Legacy station wagon received the highest safety ratings for frontal collision from Japan's Ministry of Transport and the National Organization for Automotive Safety & Victims' Aid, a government affiliated organization. The results were published in its Automobile Safety Information on March 17th.

In the test, a vehicle with test dummies in the driver's and front passenger's seats is driven at 55km per hour directly into a concrete barrier. After collision, the degree of damage to the dummies' heads and chests is recorded and used with data on damage and deformation to the vehicle to assign each model a ranking on a six-level crashworthiness scale that ranges from the lowest level of D to the top rank of AAA. The Legacy's driver and front passenger seats were rated AAA, and the Forester was given an AAA rating for the driver seat and AA for the front passenger seat.